Basic Ecclesial Communities in Mexico Beyond Liberation Theology

Date of Award

2005

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Marks, Susan

Keywords

Liberation Theology, Base Communities, Catholicism

Area of Concentration

Religion

Abstract

Basic ecclesial communities originated in the early 1960's and quickly became intricately connected to liberation theology as it swept across Latin America in the 1960's and 70's. This thesis looks specifically at base communities in Mexico. Through the weekly proceedings of one specific base community in Southern Mexico, and a weeklong national gathering of Mexican base communities, I present the base communities as moving beyond their association with liberation theology while not abandoning their liberationist message. More than simply the base level of a theological movement, the base communities envision themselves as the basic level of the Church. Rather than in their relationship as part of liberation theology, the significance of the base communities lies in their enactment of a new way of being a church that is responding to specific needs of Latin American Catholicism in the 21st century.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS